Since New Year’s Day and the introduction of the euro as the official currency in Croatia, prices of goods and services have visibly increased in the country, Croatian media reported, quoted by standartnews.com.
Therefore, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković convened today, on the first working day after the holidays, a meeting with the competent ministers and supervisory authorities. Further actions to protect consumers from unjustified price increases were discussed.
“The introduction of the euro is not the reason for an increase in the prices of goods and services,” said Plenkovic.
After the meeting, Economy Minister Davor Filipovic invited representatives of retail chains to a meeting and accused them of unjustifiably raising prices and trying to deceive citizens.
“We talked to representatives of the retail chains about the constant increase in prices of food and drinks and the exchange of the kuna for the euro. Inflation is 13.5% and is mainly due to the increase in the prices of foods and soft drinks”. he said.
“The chain stores raise their prices every month. And now, in this situation with the euro, they raise their prices and try to deceive the citizens. I told them today and I’m telling everyone who wants to use the currency exchange at to the detriment of citizens that this will not be done,” he said.
“We view retail chains as our partners.
We acted in good faith, we didn’t expect it.
We sent them clear messages that they should take care of the citizens” Filipovic said.
“The state inspectorate is there, they will make an accurate report. When you talk to the representatives of the chains everything is fine, no one has raised the prices… And you all know what happens when you go to the store. The state inspectorate, so like all other institutions, it will do its job to protect citizens,” said the minister.
On possible measures, Filipovic said “everything is on the table, from blacklisting to price freezes on a wide range of products, everything.”
“Everyone has to bear the brunt of the crisis,” he added. In this crisis, we cannot see profits increasing at the expense of citizens,” she added.
The media reports that in some pastry shops such as “Mlinar” the higher prices are clearly visible, so much so that a croissant that previously cost six kuna (80 euro cents) now costs one euro and ten cents. Ordinary white bread has risen by 31 lipa and now costs 90 euro cents, writes dir.bg.
Prices are higher in the markets too. A kilogram of oranges cost 13 kuna (1.75 euros), and now the price has increased by about two kunas and seven limes, i.e. a kilogram costs two euros. Until now, potatoes were priced between three and five kuna per kilogram, and now one kilogram is about six kuna 78 linden, while a kilogram of onions, instead of the previous six kuna, costs one kuna 53 linden more.
Espresso, which cost six kuna (80 euro cents) before the introduction of the euro, now costs 93 cents, which means a price increase of almost a whole kuna, reports the Croatian portal Direktno.
Parking in Zagreb has also become more expensive, so much so that an hour in the first zone costs 12 kuna 60 lipa (1.6 euros), 60 cents more. The second zone is 27 kuna more expensive and amounts to five kuna and 27 kuna, or 70 cents. A third zone is more expensive at 26 limes.
At “Petrol” gas stations, the price of petrol rose by 39 lipps and diesel by 24 lipps.
At the same time, the police warned of possible fraud with counterfeit euros, reports the information site Index. In recent days, the police have received several reports of attempts to pay with banknotes, which are used as film props. The police have urged citizens to be careful and to report if they suspect counterfeit banknotes.
How many exchange offices will survive?
Only one in ten exchange offices in Croatia will survive joining the eurozone, according to the owners of exchange offices in the country, quoted by the Croatian newspaper “Jutarni List”.
Uncertainty, closing offices, waiting and switching to cryptocurrency instead of the euro are some of the plans and opinions of Croatian exchange office owners.
On Monday morning, the first day the exchange offices were opened, despite no longer being allowed to change Croatian kunas into euros, which accounted for 85% of their business, most exchange offices reported that they were almost out of business.
Anita Filipovic, who works at one such exchange office, said her Slovenian colleagues shared that after Slovenia adopted the euro, only five percent of all exchange offices, mostly in central Ljubljana , continued to work.
The majority of exchange office owners surveyed by “Yutarni List” expect that only between five and ten percent of exchange offices in Croatia will be able to continue to operate.
According to data from the Central Bank of Croatia (HCB), there are 1,080 exchange offices in Croatia that have a currency exchange permit issued by the Central Bank of Croatia. They operate a total of 3,500 offices and employ over 10,000 people.
86 percent of the work of exchange offices is exchange for euros, about 6 percent – for US dollars and about 5 percent – for Swiss francs.
The owner of an exchange office said that some of his colleagues intend to switch to cryptocurrencies.
Another businessman, who owns a chain of 11 bureaux de change and has already closed two, suggests that around 10 per cent of bureaux de change may continue to operate, meaning more than 1,000 will have to close, leading to the loss of thousands of people their jobs. He hopes the offices in Dalmatia, in eastern Croatia, will continue to function.
